As expected, the sprinters' teams put their guys at the front on this completely flat Tour de France stage between Bordeaux and Dax in southern France.
The picture perfect mass sprint resulted in a photo finish showing Oscar Freire taking his second win of this year's Tour from Australian speedster Robbie McEwen. Tom Boonen, boasting 17 wins this year before the Tour, ended in 4th place, just behind Erik Zabel.
There's little change in the standings overall, as 36-year-old Ukrainian Serhiy Honchar keeps his yellow jersey for another day. American cyclist David Zabriskie moved up on spot to 8th place, still 1-minute 53 seconds behind.
Stage 9 was the last chance for a win by many of the sprinters, at least for the next three days, as the Tour begins three days in the Pyrenees on Wednesday. Sprint finishes are exciting to watch, but I'm definitely ready to see the battle for GC in the mountains.
The 118-mile stage from Cambo les Bains to Pau travels over two huge climbs — the beyond category Col de Soudet and category 1 Col de Marie Blanque. I'm sure there are plenty of cyclists — namely 2nd place Floyd Landis and 3 or 4 of Honchar's T-Mobile teammates — anxious to see whether Honchar cracks and loses his 1 minute lead.
The breakaway du jour rocketed off at 4 miles into the 105 stage, gaining nearly 8 minutes before the sprinters' teams took control of the peloton and started tightening the screws.
The three men in the break — Christian Knees (Milram), Stephane Augé (Cofidis), Walter Beneteau (Bouygues) — were caught with 2 1/2 miles left to go.
The top 10 are:
1. Serhiy Gonchar (Ukr), T-Mobile
2. Floyd Landis (US), Phonak, 1:00 behind
3. Michael Rogers (Aus), T-Mobile, 1:08
4. Patrik Sinkewitz (Ger), T-Mobile, 1:45
5. Andreas Kloden (Ger), T-Mobile, 1:50
6. Vladimir Karpets (Rus), Caisse d'Epargne, 1:52
7. Cadel Evans (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, 1:52
8. David Zabriskie (US), CSC, 1:53
5. Marcus Fothen (Ger), Gerolsteiner, 2:03
10. Christophe Moreau (Fr), AG2R, 2:07
The positions of US racers are:
2. Floyd Landis (Phonak), 1:00 behind
8. David Zabriskie (Team CSC), 1:53
17 George Hincapie (Discovery), 2:30
22. Christian Vandevelde (Team CSC), 3:25
72. Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner), 6:43
121. Chris Horner (Davitamon-Lotto), 12:19
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